A kinetic and surrealist hypnotic work showing an African Fertility Dance that has a similar aesthetic to the covers the artist was creating for the American Weekly magazine in the 1940s.  This could have been a proposed illustration for the title, but the overt eroticism of the scene makes us think it was likely a separate commission for a more niche market. Inscribed Property of Andre Durenceau lower right; a jarring work by one of our favorite avant-garde art deco era illustrators. Nicely matted and framed behind glass in a period frame.

Andre Durenceau was born in Auray, France on June 1, 1904, and later became a resident of Los Angeles in the early 1930s, where he painted a mural of Samson and Delilah in the Leimert Theater and worked in the art department of Technicolor Studios. Primarily known as a painter and muralist, Andre Durenceau created murals for The New York World’s Fair of 1939. His artistic oeuvre has spanned many years and many illustrations, and his work that survives is highly prized. Many consider him to be one of the greatest muralists of all time.